


The Present Job

by ourdarkspirits



Category: Leverage
Genre: Fluff, Gift Giving, Multi, Post-Series, Vacation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-07
Updated: 2017-12-07
Packaged: 2019-02-03 19:24:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12754620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ourdarkspirits/pseuds/ourdarkspirits
Summary: The team decides to take a break from work and Hardison plans a surprise.





	The Present Job

Hardison woke with a deep breath, stretching out his arms. He didn't open his eyes right away, preferring to savor the feeling of being buried under blankets with Parker wrapped around him. Cuddling with Parker was rare and not even the aroma of Eliot making breakfast could drag him out of bed at that moment. After a few more minutes he forced his eyes open and gazed down at Parker. Her head was pillowed on his chest, her hair covering her face.

They had been working nonstop for months now and Parker needed the sleep. She had been pulling all nighters, developing plans A through Z and then some for each new job. After the latest one, though, Eliot and Hardison had both insisted on a break. Parker had agreed only reluctantly. So now here he was, warm and safe with absolutely nothing to do.

Finally he got up with a sigh, half expecting Parker to wake up at the movement but she didn't. Hardison dug through the dresser for a clean t-shirt and sweatpants and got dressed.

The kitchen was state of the art. When Eliot had moved in he had insisted on upgrades that Hardison was only too willing to fund if it meant more time with him. At the time, he had told Eliot that he would do whatever he wanted if it meant more of his cooking. Long before they had started to living together, Hardison had learned that Eliot didn't respond well to emotional overtures.

“Is that cinnamon rolls?” Hardison asked as he stepped into the bright, sunny kitchen.

“Yeah,” Eliot replied gruffly. “I knew you'd both be sleeping in late, so.” He gestured towards the oven.

Hardison understood. With Parker and Hardison getting up so much later than Eliot, he had time to put together something more time-consuming than normal. Not only that, he wanted to.

“Smells amazing,” Hardison said and it did.

He grabbed a laptop and Eliot replied. “Thanks, man. Is Parker still asleep?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I didn't feel like waking her up, all things considered.” Eliot nodded. They both knew how difficult it was to wake Parker up without serious consequences.

Hardison opened the computer and sat down at the kitchen counter. Eliot frowned at him but he pretended not to notice.

Eliot lost his patience. “I thought we agreed to take a break,” he almost snarled. “This doesn't look like a break.”

Hardison smiled to himself. Eliot still protected himself under about a million layers of gruffness but Hardison knew better. Eliot was worried about all of them.

“We are. This isn't work. Seriously, this isn't even my work laptop.” Hardison rolled his eyes. “This one’s got a case on it. And the Star Wars sticker. My work laptop has a Batman sticker on it. Because we’re like Batman. Do you- did you seriously not notice that?”

He continued typing away, focusing on the screen in front of him while Eliot worked through a range of reactions.

Eliot shrugged. “They’re stickers. I didn’t pay attention to what they said. So what are you doing, then?”

Hardison feigned offense. “So what? I can't even open up my computer without it being work? You have to know every little thing I do?”

“I didn't say that, man! Normally you can't wait to tell us all about your super awesome plans. Which aren't awesome by the way,” Eliot shot back.

“I am offended.” Hardison brought a hand to his chest in his best Southern belle impersonation. “My plans are always incredible.”

Eliot rolled his eyes and walked back into the kitchen to check on the cinnamon rolls. They apparently needed more time because Eliot closed the oven door and stood up with his arms folded to glare at Hardison.

“Are you going to tell me what you're doing?” Eliot asked. Apparently Hardison’s diversion tactics didn't work as well as they used to.

“Man, you know that scary pose doesn't work on me anymore,” Hardison replied. “I'll tell you when I tell you.”

“Whatever, man,” Eliot replied.

Before Hardison could come up with any sort of witty comeback, Parker came in. Hardison immediately closed the laptop and Eliot lifted his eyebrows and crossed his arms over his chest again. Hardison smiled at his predictability as Parker sat down next to him.

“I thought we weren’t working,” Parker said, with a pointed look at Hardison’s laptop.

“We're not. Do neither of you think I do anything but work on my laptop?” Hardison asked. “This isn't even my work laptop.”

“Sorry,” Parker said, stretching and draping an arm around Hardison’s shoulders. “So what were you doing?”

“Seriously y’all are so nosy,” Hardison deflected. “I'll tell you when I tell you.”

“He's planning something,” Eliot commented as he pulled cinnamon rolls out of the oven.

Parker’s eyes lit up when she saw what he was doing and hopped up to get a better look.

“Are those cinnamon rolls?” Parker asked before she even got around the breakfast bar.

Hardison was pretty sure he saw Eliot preen at the enthusiasm in Parker’s voice. “Yeah,” he said, setting them on a trivet that Hardison had found for him a few months ago. “I used Ceylon cinnamon, which is not the same as what you get in the store. That’s not even cinnamon. The Ceylon is sweeter and more complex.”

Hardison made a face and Eliot continued on. “Listen, the rest of the world agrees, Cassia is just not cinnamon. You’ll see.”

Parker propped herself against the counter, chatting happily at Eliot as he finished making breakfast, and Hardison opened his laptop back up. With Eliot and Parker distracted for the next few minutes, he could start putting his plan together. He kept an eye on them as he opened up a search engine and began exploring possibilities.

The night before, they had agreed not to take any new jobs for a while and when Eliot and Parker had dropped the conversation, Hardison stayed awake thinking. He knew that he didn’t need to do anything for them, that a few days spent quietly at home was perfectly acceptable, but he wanted to. He wanted to find something that they could do together that wasn’t work that they would all enjoy. With that in mind, he was putting his considerable skill set to a slightly different use.

“Hey,” Eliot called from the kitchen. “Put the computer away and have breakfast.”

Hardison grumbled something about bossy boyfriends and shut the laptop. The still hot cinnamon rolls were accompanied by a bowl of fresh fruit and bacon. Hardison’s eyes widened. Eliot must have been up longer than he thought because he knew they didn’t have any fruit in the kitchen last night. Parker was already digging in, two cinnamon rolls centered on her plate.

“Thanks, Eliot,” Hardison said, pulling the baking dish towards him and serving himself a cinnamon roll.

“You’re welcome,” he replied, scooping fruit onto Hardison’s plate.

It was cute that Eliot had taken it upon himself to make sure they ate their fruit and vegetables to the degree that he was putting food on his plate before Hardison had the chance to argue about it. He grumbled a bit about it, but they both knew it was mostly an act.

The cinnamon rolls were very good. Everything was delicious, but then it always was. Of course it was made better by them having nowhere in particular to be.

“Is this from the Saturday market just down the road?” Hardison asked after a few minutes of quiet.

“Yeah.”

“How long have you been up, man?” Hardison asked, peering closely at Eliot’s face.

“I was awake. Figured I might as well do something productive while I was,” Eliot said, not really meeting Hardison’s look. Parker glanced over from where she had been devoting most of attention her plate and her coffee and gave Eliot one of those perceptive looks that was becoming more common.

Hardison stared at his nearly empty plate, thinking. He didn’t ask about the nightmares. The three of them had had that conversation enough times and Hardison wasn’t about to beat a dead horse. There had been plenty of sleepless nights and nights where they collapsed on any flat surface into exhausted sleep but, even on the nights where they managed to get more regular sleep, Eliot’s nightmares had been coming less frequently. With all the jobs they had been doing and the new nightmare, a vacation was probably exactly what they needed. Preferably one where absolutely nothing went wrong.

“I want to go next time,” Parker said. “I never get to go to the Saturday market.”

“That’s because you’re never up early enough,” Eliot replied.

“So wake me up,” Parker suggested as if it were obvious, which it wasn’t.

“Yeah, because waking you up is a great idea,” Eliot retorted.

“Hey, I’ve gotten better.”

“She has,” Hardison supplied. “Last week when she fell asleep when we were waiting for our bad guy? I woke her up. Wasn’t a problem.”

Parker waved her hand at Hardison and said, “See? I am getting better. I want to go to the Saturday market next time.”

“Fine,” Eliot grumbled. “Next time I go to the market I’ll take you with me.”

Parker grinned brightly at him and turned to face forward again and stuffed the last of her cinnamon roll into her mouth. Parker and Hardison cleared to the breakfast plates and Hardison covered the bowl of fruit and put it in the fridge for later. He hadn’t stopped eating what Eliot called junk but Hardison had started to supplement it with the food Eliot insisted on.

“So,” Parker said, “What are we doing today?”

“I am getting some much needed computer time that isn’t about work,” Hardison replied. “I don’t know what you and Eliot are doing.”

This led to some good natured bickering about the amount of time Hardison spent inside and the fact that they all needed a break. Eventually Eliot and Parker left to explore Portland. The last he heard as they walked out the door was something about the zoo.

***

  
Hardison moved to the office to keep working and didn’t hear Parker and Eliot get back, until Parker found him. He quickly closed his windows, not ready to share what he was doing with her. Parker draped her arms around his shoulders and pressed her face close to his.

“Have you been in here this whole time?” Hardison couldn’t ignore the note of concern in her voice, and brought his hands up to hold hers.

“Not the whole time,” he hedged.

“I thought we said no work,” Parker reminded him. He really wondered how it could be comfortable for her to be draped over him like that, not that he minded.

“This isn’t work, I promise,” Hardison protested. “I’m almost done.”

“Ok. Eliot’s making dinner,” Parker said and left the room.

He kind of wished she was still wrapped around him, but he had to finish researching. He hadn’t realized it had taken him so long, but, checking the clock, Hardison realized just how badly he’d lost track of time. With a few more clicks, Hardison finished what he was doing, closed his laptop, and grabbed a tablet to bring into the kitchen with him.

“Parker said you’ve been holed up in front of a computer all day,” Eliot said, upon Hardison’s entrance.

The room already smelled incredible and Hardison was pretty sure that Eliot had only been working for a few minutes before he joined them. The smell of onions cooking was the strongest scent, something that had come to remind him of home. He sat down at the counter next to Parker and placed the pad on the counter. Eliot raised his eyebrows.

“How is that any different from any other day?” Hardison asked, defensiveness creeping into his tone.

“I thought that was the point,” Eliot replied, waving a kitchen utensil at him. Hardison would call it a spatula and Eliot would probably tell him he was wrong. “We’re supposed to be doing something different.”

Hardison decided now was as good a time as any to tell them what he had been working on all day. He wasn’t going to be able to keep it a secret from them for much longer. That was the trouble with living with two of the best criminals in the world. They had ways of finding out just about anything.

He pulled out his tablet and unlocked the screen. “This is what I’ve been doing,” he said, pulling up the browser before passing the device over to Parker.

She took the tablet from his hand and frowned at the screen.

“I don’t understand,” Parker said finally. “What is this? A job?”

“What?” Hardison said, indignant. “No. I told you I wasn’t working. It’s not for a job.”

Before he could explain further, Eliot reached across the bar and took the tablet from Parker.

“Then what is it?” he asked.

“Wow,” Hardison said. “Just wow. Have y’all never heard of a vacation?”

“That’s what this is,” Eliot replied, gesturing between the three of them. “We’re taking a vacation.”

“I mean a real vacation,” Hardison clarified. “Where we do something different. Get out of the apartment. And we don’t do any work. Together.”

“So we’re going to this,” Parker gestured at the tablet in her hand, “exhibit?”

“Yeah,” Hardison said. “I thought it would be interesting. You could check out the security systems, I could check out what was actually on display. And don’t worry,” this he directed at Eliot. “I’ve got something in mind for you, too.”

Eliot went back to chopping vegetables, giving his best “I wasn’t worried” expression, which fooled exactly no one. Hardison watched him for a minute more, considering.

“Do you want me to tell you what it is?” Hardison asked finally, wanting to to share his entire plan.

Eliot shrugged and Hardison rolled his eyes. “Fine. I was thinking I’d keep the whole thing secret, but y’all are so nosy I decided to tell you. But you,” he pointed at Eliot, “will just have to wait for what I had in mind for you.”

“Do you want me to ask?” Eliot asked, bristling and Hardison grinned at him.

“No, I want it to be a surprise.”

Parker, who had been reading about the exhibit, interjected, “Wait, didn’t we watch this movie?” She gestured at the image of a doll with blue hair and one button eye. “The really freaky one?”

  
“With the Other Mother?” Hardison finished. “Yeah. The exhibit is about that type of animation. I thought it would be cool.”

Parker nodded and continued scrolling through the website. “Do you think Eliot will like it?”

Hardison shrugged. He didn’t know if Eliot would like it or not. That’s why he had made plans for after with Eliot specifically in mind. “I don’t know. That’s why I planned to do something else, too,” he said. “You want to know what it is, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” she answered, grinning. “What are we doing?”

“I can’t tell you. Eliot doesn’t want to know.” He smirked, enjoying teasing Eliot.

Eliot’s frown deepened, but Hardison wasn’t perturbed. He watched as Eliot finished prepping ingredients and began sliding the rest of the vegetables into his pan. They sizzled as they hit the oil, and the smell permeated the apartment.

“What are you making, man?” Hardison asked finally, when Eliot still hadn’t said anything.

Eliot slid peppers off the cutting board into the pan and spread them about. “Curry,” he answered.

“Yes!” Hardison exclaimed. “I love your curry.”

The conversation turned to more general things. They wondered, not for the first time, what Sophie and Nate were up to. Eliot firmly declared that he had no desire to know and Parker suggested they were pulling off some elaborate heist. The smells of curry spread through the apartment, and when Eliot started the rice, Hardison started setting out dishes at the bar.

They had a dining table, but they rarely ever sat down for meals at it. Most of the time it was covered in Hardison’s computers and printouts for jobs. They ate there only when they were working, which, for the last month, had seemed to be every day. Every way they related to each other seemed to go in direct opposition to convention. Of course they would do family meals differently, too.

Eliot plated their dinner and sat down between Parker and Hardison. After a few remarks about the quality of the food, which followed the usual pattern, they settled into an easy silence. Hardison bumped his shoulder into Eliot’s, enjoying the way that Eliot no longer pushed him off the way he used to to keep everyone at bay. Now, he snorted softly and carried on eating and Hardison grinned to himself.

“So,” Hardison started, looking to Parker and Eliot at his left. “What did y’all do today? Or am I the only one we can nag about my daily activities?”

“Dammit, Hardison, we just thought we had an agreement,” Eliot growled into his plate.

“Which I stuck to,” Hardison reminded him.

“Eliot showed me where the market is that he likes to go to but it was closed already,” Parker interrupted what could have turned quickly into bickering. “So then we went to that waterfront park. The one on the Willamette River. What was that place where we got lunch?”

She jostled Eliot’s shoulder and he turned to her with an expression like amused exasperation on his face. “The Vietnamese place?”

“Yeah,” Parker agreed, her face lit up. “That was really good. We should take Hardison there.”

“We could, if we could pry him away from his laptop,” Eliot said.

“I resent that,” Hardison interjected. “I get out of here all the time. I arranged a date, that we’re all going on.” He put extra emphasis on ‘all,’ drawing the word out. “Don’t act like I just hole up inside all day.”

“Says the man who complained about how the smell of the outdoors when we were on a job,” Eliot reminded him.

“Yeah, well I was right not to like it wasn’t I? We got kidnapped by some damn militia,” Hardison countered. “I don’t think that’s gonna happen at a Vietnamese restaurant in Portland.”

“He is right,” Parker agreed. “You’re probably more likely to get kidnapped by one of the organized crime groups around here than a militia.”

“I’d rather not get kidnapped by anybody,” Hardison reminded her.

“Yeah, but Eliot and I would come get you,” she replied serenely. “Right, Eliot?”

Eliot shrugged and said, “Maybe.”

“Maybe,” Hardison scoffed. “Yeah ok. Maybe.”

They kept on talking and teasing each other until they finished dinner and Parker and Hardison cleaned up the dishes. Eliot was the type who cleaned as he went, didn’t like to cook in a messy kitchen, even when the mess was the natural result of food prep, which made it easier to to clean after meals.

Later, after Parker started drifting off barely halfway into an episode of _Stranger Things_ on Hardison’s shoulder, the three of them decided to call it a night.

“What time are we going on this date?” Parker asked sleepily, her face already buried in a pillow.

Hardison shrugged, which was weird when he was laying down, and said, “I thought we could leave around 1:00.”

“Ok.”

***

  
With kids still in school, the museum was quiet when they got there. It almost felt as if they had the museum all to themselves. They bypassed the admissions lines and walked into the exhibit. Parker followed Hardison up to a display, and even though he knew she was looking at the security and not the stop-animation figure, he was glad to have her there with him.

Eliot lingered a little further back, watching Hardison read the plaque while Parker circled the case, assessing. Hardison was moving onto the next display when Eliot sidled up next to him.

“So what is this?” Eliot asked, gesturing to the figure in the display.

“Oh man, it’s revolutionary,” Hardison started. He could feel himself lighting up but he didn’t care. Eliot asked. “Every one of these movies took ages to make but look at this.” He gestured at a figure from _Kubo_. “Look at the detail. They plan this all out. They make these detailed figures that are, like, that big, and they make them feel larger than life.”

Eliot gave him an amused look but he was still listening so Hardison continued. They both kept one eye on Parker, most of her attention on the security system. Hardison noted the various measures she saw but continued to speak with Eliot. He liked it.

“You’re patting yourself on the back right now aren’t you?” Eliot asked, seeing something on Hardison’s face that must have clued him in.

Hardison grinned and shrugged. “I just love when my plans come together.”

Parker stopped her assessment and said, “ _The A-Team_!”

Hardison turned his grin on her and nodded while Eliot rolled his eyes. Hardison nudged him. “Come on, you love it.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Eliot admitted.

Before he could say anything else, Parker bounced ahead, saying, “Ooh! I love this one!”

She turned to Hardison with her eyes lit up and he felt a warmth in his chest in response. He stuck his hands in his pockets as he strode to catch up with Parker, Eliot at his side. Parker grabbed his arm when he was in reach dragging him closer. They carried on through the exhibit like that, Parker keeping them close, Hardison talking about the films on display, the science behind the animation, and Eliot keeping tabs.

Eliot was subtle about it. That was part of what made him so good at what he did, but after years of working with him, Hardison had learned how to pick out the signs. He, like Parker, couldn’t quite let go of habit, even on a day off. And, frankly, with all the enemies they had made over the course of those years, Hardison was not about to complain about it.

As they neared the end of the exhibit, Hardison turned to Eliot and asked quietly, “Are we good?”

“Yeah,” Eliot replied, “we’re good.”

They walked out into the late afternoon light. Parker was light on her feet, facing Hardison with an expression that told him she had appreciated the trip. Eliot walked briskly. Hardison knew he had found it interesting, even though he still didn’t like to admit it. Except he had asked questions, shown interest in the exhibit. Which, Hardison could admit, was more than he sometimes did. The job with the militia came to mind.

“So now what?” Eliot asked as they walked along the street.

Parker stopped talking about the exhibit and looked at Hardison curiously. “Well,” Hardison began, “We have some time before my reservation so we can just walk around. If you want.”

“Ok,” Parker said, grabbing his hand, and Hardison looked to Eliot for confirmation.

“Sure,” Eliot nodded.

They walked around the city, venturing towards the river as the sun began to set.

“You never mentioned the security,” Hardison prompted as they watched the sun fall on the water.

Parker shrugged. “They could make some improvements. I could break in in a matter of minutes and be out without getting caught.”

“What about the average thief?” Eliot asked.

Parker shrugged. “It would probably keep the average thief out. I don’t think there’s much to worry about though with that collection.”

Hardison started to protest but Parker kept going. “I’m not saying it wasn’t cool, because it was, but it’s not the typical target for anyone. So security is less of an issue. It’s more to keep visitors from touching things they shouldn’t touch. I liked the exhibit though,” Parker added to reassure Hardison.

Hardison appreciated her reassurance. Although he had seen her enthusiasm throughout the afternoon, it was nice to hear that she liked it. Parker grabbed Eliot’s hand and pointed something out that they had seen the day before. Hardison checked the time again. It was about time they started making their way to the restaurant he had chosen.

“We should get going,” he said to Parker and Eliot, who had gotten a little ahead of him.

They walked through downtown Portland, Hardison passing a handful of restaurants, before Eliot’s curiosity finally got the better of him.

He was walking closely to Hardison, their shoulders occasionally brushing, when Eliot turned to Hardison. “So. Where are we going?”

Hardison took one look at the smile on Eliot’s face, the one that said he was trying to get something and then turned to face forward again, keeping an eye out for the place he had picked. “I’m not telling. You’ll just have to wait and see.”

Parker dropped back next to him and slipped her hand into his. “Will you tell me?”

He had Parker holding his hand on one side and Eliot brushing his shoulder on the other and it was a wonder Hardison was able to keep it together. “I’m not telling either of you.”

Parker pouted and Hardison resolutely directed his attention to the establishments they were passing, keeping an eye out for the restaurant. If he turned to look at either of them he would fold. It was hard enough to keep silent as it was. He probably wouldn’t have bothered keeping the restaurant secret if Eliot hadn’t been so stubborn.

He finally found what he was looking for just beyond the intersection. “There it is,” he pointed it out to them.

He may not have considered the restaurant particularly out of the common way but Eliot lit up anyway. “Are you kidding me?” he asked.

“You like this place?” Hardison asked with raised eyebrows.

“I’ve been wanting to come here since I heard about it opening,” Eliot replied as they approached. “The chef is supposed to be great. You seriously didn’t know?”

“I knew it was supposed to be good and I thought if I was going to take you somewhere so you could take a break from cooking for us it would have to be good,” Hardison replied. “I didn’t know you had opinions about this place in particular.”

Parker was giving them a bemused look as they approached the door, but she didn’t say anything. They both knew how seriously Eliot took food and how personally he took their meal choices. It’s why the three of them sort of tacitly agreed that Eliot would cook their meals for them. Otherwise Hardison would still be having cheese puffs and orange soda regularly for meals, and Parker would be eating fortune cookies for breakfast. And he liked it, too, they both knew, but that didn’t mean he deserved a break, to have someone else making the meals, and since that was beyond either his or Parker’s skillsets, dinner in a fancy restaurant was the best option.

Hardison gave his name to the maître d’ and they were taken to their table. The restaurant had a warm, intimate atmosphere. The food on the menu was European, mostly French, as far as Hardison could tell.

He stared at his menu for a while before looking at Eliot. “I have no idea what to get.”

It wasn’t because he was overwhelmed with appealing choices. He was interested in food when he could apply science to it. When he could use tools to create new things, then he was interested. Here, he had very little idea what he was looking at. Everything he knew about dining came from Eliot and Sophie.

Parker looked up. “Neither do I.”

Eliot grumbled unconvincingly and when the waiter came to take their drink orders, he ordered for all of them. The waiter raised her eyebrow at the apparent presumption but Hardison and Parker both appreciated the gesture.

When the waiter brought their drinks Eliot again ordered for all three of them. Again she made a face but didn’t say anything.

“She doesn’t think you should be ordering for all of us,” Parker commented, watching the waiter walk away.

Hardison shrugged. “I don’t really care. He’s got a better idea of the menu than we would.”

“I know,” Parker said. “It’s just weird.”

“It’s not weird for you,” Eliot remarked. “You don’t know so you ask someone who does. Don’t worry about it.”

Hardison asked about what he ordered after the waiter had brought their food. Eliot put as much effort into explaining the dishes on the table as Hardison had put into explaining the science on display at the art museum. When Eliot was done, Hardison tried the ragout in front of him. It was good. He probably wouldn’t have chosen it for himself but it was good. The stew was hearty and familiar and, he had to admit, worked well with the red wine Eliot had chosen.

Later, when they had finished their meals and Hardison had paid the bill, the three of them walked out into the night air. It was significantly cooler than when they had arrived at the restaurant so they walked a little closer together, sharing body heat. Despite the cool temperatures, they elected to walk back to the apartment, letting the moment last longer.

They took the fire escape up to their apartment, avoiding the crowd in the brewpub. When they let themselves in they began stripping off their light jackets. It was warmer in their apartment than it had been outside and they relaxed into the heat.

The three of them settled onto the couch and took time just to be silent. After a moment, Parker laid her head on Hardison’s shoulder.

“Thanks for this Hardison,” she said. She tilted her head so she could see him.

“You’re welcome, Parker,” Hardison replied letting her see all the warmth he was feeling after having arranged a day that she and Eliot had both enjoyed.

“Yeah, Hardison,” Eliot added, pressing into Hardison’s other side. “It was good. Especially the surprise.”

“Yeah?” Hardison asked. “You liked not knowing what we were doing?”

“No,” Eliot said, “but I liked realizing where you had decided to go.”

Hardison smiled to himself and pulled up Netflix. He pulled up the next episode of _Stranger Things_ and settled into the sofa, basking in the warmth of the two people he loved most pressed against him. Even though he had been confident about his plans, it had been nice to see them both enjoying the date. He did love it when a plan came together.


End file.
